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The most popular country singer in the country won Entertainer of the Year at the 45th edition of the Country Music Association Awards, which were broadcast on ABC Wednesday night from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. That would be Taylor Swift, the pop phenom, who outmuscled her competition on the heels of her triple-platinum album "Speak Now" (Big Machine).
But unlike recent years in which the CMAs have served as a bellwether of emergent Nashville trends, or at least grudging acknowledgments of already trending phenomena, this year's awards showed a genre in midswing, telling several stories at once.
The newly married Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert repeated last year's breakthrough victories for Male and Female Vocalist of the Year.
"I didn't think y'all would let me get away with this two times," Shelton said. A little while later it was Lambert's turn at the podium. "Seriously?" she asked. After her brief speech, she looked at Shelton in the crowd and shouted, "It's gonna be a good night tonight, babyyyyyyyy!" Shelton eyes never left her as he rubbed his hands together hungrily.
Sugarland won for Vocal...